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Our View
There’s a lot to love about Lambrook School, one of the country’s oldest proper country preps. Full to the brim with a tight-knit gang of 600 girls and boys, it’s fervently co-ed, offers brilliantly flexi boarding, super-duper sport, music, drama and art and packs children off to the top senior schools. It’s the very best blend of traditional English prep values, stonking facilities and a real sense of fun. They say they give children the ‘feathers to fly’; we say they help them soar.
Where is Lambrook?
Set in prime Home Counties commuter territory, trotting distance from Ascot racecourse and surrounded by very expensive real estate, Lambrook’s 52 acres of Berkshire grounds are a real pull for London parents: the Big Smoke is a 40-minute zip down the M4.
It’s pretty bucolic: we spotted children cartwheeling on the croquet lawn, racing around with cricket bats and swinging from old tyres hanging from the trees, sporting proper rosy cheeks and a healthy outdoorsy glow. The outdoor learning area and orchard have beautiful raised beds for growing veg, and pupils beetle around tending to their beehives and rabbits.
The school is anchored around a pristine, grand white country house, with Lambrook nursery and pre-prep all within the well-kept grounds. There’s a sense of delicious freedom and fresh air: little wonder so many prospective parents are Londoners.
Headmaster at Lambrook School
The utterly charming head of Lambrook Jonathan Perry and his wife Jenny are quite the double act – and rank as one of the most hospitable, interested and interesting couples we’ve come across on our school visits (and there have been many!). With their warmth and real family values rippling through the school, they’re fantastic role models for the children.
They’ve been here for well over a decade, and Mr Perry knows each child backwards (lots of schools pay lip service to this, but we saw it in action), sends each one a handwritten birthday card and, along with the whole senior leadership team, chats to parents every morning at drop-off – a great way to nip any niggles in the bud before they become issues. Parental partnerships are absolutely vital, and his constant reassurance to parents that they will ‘hold hands on the journey together’ generates a transformative level of trust. He’s terrifically strategic and ambitious too (he spearheaded a rolling multi-million refurbishment practically the day he arrived). Staff praise his ‘incredible leadership’, and pupils totally adore him. ‘If I need anything, I just talk to Mr Perry,’ one new arrival reassured his mother, whilst another pupil we met told us that ‘Mr Perry’s main message is to be kind and that’s why I love it here’. We think that says it all.
What is the admissions process like at Lambrook?
It’s no wonder that this is a popular place, with locals and Londoners all queuing up for a slice of the Lambrook pie – and registrations are surging. They’re not just looking for academic superstars, but for pupils (and indeed families) who are prepared to try lots of new things and really get the most out of what Lambrook has to offer. Main entry points are Reception, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 7, with children sitting age-appropriate assessments including a group interview, team-building exercises and papers in maths, English and non-verbal reasoning to rootle out potential and check that they can handle the curriculum further up the school. Parents also meet with the Perrys to help build up an all-important rapport. Take note: priority is given to siblings and the offspring of former pupils.
The
Lambrook Foundation continues to be a big focus, raising a staggering amount annually to help widen access to the school through a number of
transformative bursaries.
Academics and senior school destinations
It’s the staff that make Lambrook School: a wonderful mix of young, vibrant talent and traditional schoolmasters. There are two sets of siblings on the staff list, and a tangible sense of teamwork – whether that’s in the staff room or as a member of the staff netball team. Strong academics underpin the whole operation here, but not at the expense of pupil wellbeing; one mother told us her daughter ‘hardly knew she was sitting her exams’ – despite a 100 per cent pass rate at CE.
The brand new ‘Little Barn’ is now open for business, with nursery children benefitting from its bright and free flow facilities (the old nursery site has become an extension of the boys' boarding house).
From Year 5 up, lessons become six days a week (‘beware the dreaded early-morning Saturday starts,’ a parent warns), with the tempo taking a leap too – expect lots of extended learning such as current affairs and CARPE (think D of E for prep schools). All pupils in Years 5-8 have their own laptop to use in lessons.
Lambrook is very much a 13+ prep school, and the school hardly loses anyone at the end of Year 6. Mr Perry is mind-bogglingly clued up on senior schools and several parents told us that they really rated his invaluable advice. The average cohort heads off to around 35 different senior schools and crucially, every pupil is ‘delighted with where they are going’ and without the faintest whiff of competition – it's not that sort of place.
Wellington College is the most popular, followed by
Eton College,
Winchester College,
Marlborough College and
Downe House and a smattering of other boarding schools across the south-east (less than 5 per cent choose day). Scholarship hauls are jolly good too.
Co-curricular at Lambrook
Artwork was quite literally spilling out of the busy studio during our visit, and the school hosts two art and DT exhibitions every year, popular with parents but also designed to teach children the ‘life skill’ of attending exhibitions and critically appraising art. Drama – which takes place in the Diamond Jubilee Performing Arts Centre – is soaring, and on our recent visit, there was much excited chatter about the Year 8 production of Beauty and the Beast. Head of Performing Arts Martyn Ford is something of a Lambrook legend – he’s been here for donkey’s years, and his energy and enthusiasm is truly infectious.
Music is a major part of school life (we were lucky enough to listen in on a truly mesmerising choir practice); pretty much everyone learns an instrument (from the harp to the bagpipes), and the chapel choir has gained legendary status on the prep-school circuit – not only do they often sing at Eton, but they’ve performed at Notre Dame too.
There’s a real sporty streak here, adding to Lambrook’s appeal to fresh-air-deprived townies. Facilities are top-notch, with a cedar-clad swimming pool (often loaned out to local state schools, with Lambrook staff running free swimming lessons), pitches galore and an Astro recently resurfaced in Lambrook blue (the school has finally secured planning permission for a second). There are indoor cricket nets and a nine-hole golf course (parents often pop by to sneak in a round), and the vibe is fully inclusive – they’ll often field a D team or beyond at matches so everyone gets a go. Years 7 and 8 join forces for sport, which as well as being a great chance for pupils to form inter-year friendships, also gives the really sporty ones the opportunity to properly stretch themselves too.
Rugby is thriving, cricket and football are refreshingly compulsory for girls and there’s some hockey and tennis thrown in for good measure. But just in case pupils have a hankering to try something new, enrichment and after school clubs push the sporting boundaries to encompass skiing, polo, fencing, judo, trampolining and dance. Wednesday afternoons make way for matches and there’s always a very vocal parent fan club on the sidelines. Anything to do with the legendary match teas, we wonder? And the best bit? All sports kit is laundered on site, so pupils never have to bring muddy clobber home. It’s a total godsend for frazzled parents.
Once lessons are done and dusted, it’s time for muddy-kneed fun. Pupils learn to forage for food and build shelters in the ground; collect apples from the allotment or eggs for breakfast; hunt for newts in the pond; and don beekeeper’s hats to get to work on the next batch of Lambrook honey (make sure you pick up a pot on your visit). Then there are the clubs, like mountain biking, scuba diving, public speaking and mini MasterChef. ‘You can feel the fun everywhere,’ says one mother. And she’s right.
Boarding at Lambrook
Boarding is popular – there are just over 100 beds on offer for children aged seven and upwards, and they are ‘pretty much full every night’– but there’s much more of a flexi vibe here than at some other preps. Children can stay over for anything from the odd night to up to five nights a week, and almost everyone gives it a go at some stage (great preparation for senior school). There are now two boarding houses; Lambrook House for girls and the newly updated Westfield for boys, complete with table tennis, pool, table football and a cosy kitchen for making top-up toasties. The dorms are big, with 16 beds in the boys Year 8 dorm, which the pupils are gradually making their own. It’s worth knowing that pupils move beds all the time, so they don’t have their own dedicated spot in the house – but no one seems to mind.
Weekends are spent at home; everyone heads off after chapel and matches on a Saturday. But weeknights sound like a hoot; think Harry Potter evenings and lashings of hot chocolate.
We love the lack of tech in the boarding house – life here is all about keeping busy, so no one notices the lack of a PlayStation or their mobile phones (there’s a strict no phones policy here). Bedtimes are well structured, and staff tell us that most children are asleep before their heads hit the pillow.
School community at Lambrook
The Perrys are seriously clued up on the importance of emotional wellbeing, and pastoral care here is second-to-none. We chatted to pupils of all ages whose pride in Lambrook was palpable – and there certainly wasn’t even an ounce of arrogance or sense of entitlement among them. Head of pastoral, Ed Marland has made a big impression and pupils we met told us how well equipped they felt in dealing with friendship issues and the like – there’s a wellbeing hub and pupils have access to ‘so many platforms’ from which to receive advice. Mrs Perry is a big fan of the ‘Swiss cheese’ analogy, reassuring parents and children that with the many layers of pastoral support in place here, it’s impossible for there to be a hole all the way through. Every single child has their person and every single member of staff has the pupils’ best interests at heart.
The Lambrook Foundation’s work doesn’t stop at bursaries – it also provides charitable support of a school overseas, and is continuing to grow its meaningful support of local schools whose pupils are regularly hosted for history, science or sports days, collected by a Lambrook minibus and welcomed with a hearty breakfast.
What Lambrook offers London parents is second to none; pupils can hop on one of the buses leaving from Brook Green or Chiswick first thing in the morning, enjoy all the spoils of a country education and then arrive back home in time for supper. Others hail from a burgeoning catchment area including Ascot, Henley, Marlow and Windsor; a dynamic cross-section of bankers, doctors, teachers and TV personalities. Some don’t even look at the fees; others work jolly hard to send their children here and they’re a highly sociable bunch with reps co-ordinating WhatsApp groups and hosting termly drinks parties.
And finally...
A super-happy and hardworking school, Lambrook ticks pretty much every box. We asked parents if they could think of any weaknesses. ‘Yes,’ they answered. ‘It doesn’t have a senior school!’ This is the ultimate
country prep.